


Dea ex Machina: Goddess from the Machine

by The_Violet_Howler



Series: FreeVLDS8 Theories [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Episode: s07e06 The Journey Within, Episode: s08e11 Uncharted Regions, Essay, Gen, Meta, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Season/Series 08 Spoilers, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-09 16:33:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19479763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Violet_Howler/pseuds/The_Violet_Howler
Summary: Re-posted from tumblr for archival purposes.#TeamPurpleLion has laid out credible evidence that the Season 8 released in December was edited on the orders of someone higher up the corporate ladder than the EPs, and that it happened after production of the season was already completed.TPL member Leaking Hate laid out all signs of editing within the episodes themselves, and offered an educated guess at what Season 8 would have looked like prior to editing based on story structure, narrative devices, and foreshadowing.This theory is in response to a gap in Hate's outline where the specifics of what happened are vague due to content being cut out in the editing process, but I believe would serve as an intentional parallel to the events of The Journey Within





	Dea ex Machina: Goddess from the Machine

As pointed out in [@leakinghate](https://tmblr.co/m2dqoeMFn-m3jBepZ9tqRGg)’s [Seek Truth in Darkness](https://leakinghate.tumblr.com/post/183160042843/seek-truth-in-darkness) meta, there is a significant chunk of the last three episodes that was excised during the edits brought on by executive meddling: How the Paladins caught up to Honerva in the other reality. As noted, you can tell from looking at Keith’s expressions here (images brightened to better distinguish the expressions; Image comparison borrowed from Hate’s meta):

That the Paladins fail to make it through the portal to the next reality in time and are left outside reality. Hate’s meta has posited that this shot was removed because Lotor was pivotal to whatever they did to escape back into reality and catch up to Honerva, [as many of the edits in the second half of the season were done to remove him from the story](https://violethowler.tumblr.com/post/183383689403/timberwolf012-91939art-thats-a-big-post). I’d like to offer the suggestion that in addition to Lotor, their catching up to Honerva was aided by another character, one whose existence thus far was only hinted at: The Lion Goddess, first mentioned by the Arusians in Season 1.

For those who don’t know, here’s a brief tidbit of Voltron history:

The anime Beast King GoLion on which Voltron was based featured two brief appearances from a divine figure only referred to as The Goddess of the Universe, her first appearance being at the start of the series, in a scene set thousands of years before the main timeline, in which the robot GoLion (Voltron’s original incarnation) arrogantly challengers her to a battle, and she splits it apart into five lions and casts it down to Altea as punishment so that it might rise again as the legendary protector audiences are familiar with.

In 1984’s Voltron Defender of the Universe, the context of that scene is changed to Haggar impersonating a goddess and splitting Voltron into the five lions herself on Zaron’s behalf when it comes close.

Voltron: Legendary Defender first references her in season 1 with the Arusians mistaking Allura for their “Lion Goddess”. While played for laughs in Season 1, the use of the Lion Goddess for a single one-off gag raises several questions:

How would the Arusians have known the Castle had anything to do with lions? The only lion present for ten thousand years was Black, and the only way they would have known that was if they had gone inside, which would have woken Allura and Coran up much earlier than canon.

Despite Pidge referring to the Trans Reality Comets as a naturally occurring phenomenon, floating rocks with the exact same colors as the Daibzaal comet Voltron was made from are visible in the background during Lotor and Allura’s trip to Oriande in “White Lion” implying that the Lions of Voltron were modeled after the realm’s guardian.

After passing the trial of the White Lion, a disembodied female voice tells Allura “there is no need to kneel”, nearly the exact same words Allura used in Season 1 when the Arusians believed she was the Lion Goddess.

All of which point to the idea that the Lion Goddess is a real character who exists in the VLD universe and serves as Voltron’s divine patron. But if she does exist, why hasn’t she shown up to help before? 

Except the Lion Goddess has already been helping the Paladins all along. It’s wouldn’t be out of left field for her to magically transport Team Voltron to where they need to be because she’s already done it before, when she accelerated their return to Earth in “The Journey Within”.

On the surface, the visions the Paladins see are the result of either space madness or the gigantic creature that shows up out of nowhere, and the mysterious energy that disables the lions magically transports the Paladins to Earth’s solar system, conveniently arriving right as Sam Holt and the rest of the Garrison are preparing for their last stand. It honestly feels like a deus ex machina and is never elaborated on or explained…Or is it?

Let’s take a look at the visuals in this episode. Specifically, this image:

Now let’s take a look at this image from the 1984 cartoon, which depicts Voltron flying towards the Goddess of the Universe.

Other than the color schemes, the paladins being outside their lions and the physical image of the goddess, these images are pretty much the same.

So, the “hallucinations” start with a vision of bird-like creatures flying around in a formation that is deliberately evocative of a recognizable shot from the original 1984 series, showing us rather than telling us that these visions are not hallucinations, but rather, are the work of the Lion Goddess.

The narrative that the visions were caused by the nameless creature hunting the paladins doesn’t hold up, because why would it wait so long to try and eat them?

But if you look at the geometry of the space monster, there’s something familiar about this beast.

Don’t see it? Look again.

  


The geometry of this creature’s face is found directly on the front entrance of the Castle of Lions when the Paladins arrive on Arus in Season 1. The outline of the doorway even follows the general shape of the creature itself. Cleary whatever this monster is, it’s something associated with Altean history or folklore to such an extent that its design is prominently featured on the Castle of Lions.

(On a side note, the visual association between the space creature and the Castle of Lions presents a beautiful parallel: the Paladins symbolically enter the creature’s maw when they leave Earth and must literally escape the creature’s jaws in order to return to Earth).

Something else to make note of is that the winged creatures in this scene greatly resemble the Altean crest visible on the back of the Green Lion’s shield. 

We know that despite it being used as the banner of the old alliance of the original paladins, as stated by Lotor in S5E5, this is an Altean signal because both it and the the hilt of Lance’s Altean broadsword have the same distinctive Y-shape. 

  


And something else to remember is that in Season 1, the Arusians didn’t declare Allura as their goddess until she established the castle as hers. Right from the start the series equates the lion goddess with ownership of the Castle of Lions. Imagery associated with the Castle of Lions can therefore also be considered imagery associated with the Lion Goddess.

And though the energy surge that disables the lions and later magically transports everyone to Earth is never explained in Season 7, there is one thing in the VLD universe that has been established as powerful enough to disable the lions, can teleport beings, and is associated with the color white:

For a better comparison, this what the shot of the White Lion psychically attacking Clone Shiro in “Omega Shield” looks like:

And this is what the energy surge in “The Journey Within” looks like:

Note the ropy energy lines and the cloudy/nebula-like bits. 

Something else to note, it’s very convenient that despite being months, if not at least a year – from returning to Earth along their normal route, with the energy surge they manage to arrive just as the Garrison is preparing for humanity’s last stand against Sendak. Almost as if it was… Divine Intervention.

A lot of foreshadowing works on the basis of Microcosm to Macrocosm storytelling: a story element that plays out on a small scale within a single arc is later repeated on a larger scale later in the narrative. I can’t find the post for it but I think someone on TeamPurpleLion explained it by demonstrating how it played out in Harry Potter: “In the microcosm (The first book) Harry thinks Snape is working for Voldemort but Snape turns out to have been Dumbledore’s agent all along. Later on in the macrocosm (the overarching narrative of the series), Harry thinks Snape is working for Voldemort after Snape kills Dumbledore, but Snape turns out to have been a double agent for Dumbledore all along.”

As for how that plays out in VLD, in the microcosm of The Journey Within, We have the paladins lost in an unfamiliar location, cut off from everything and everyone but each other. They encounter imagery associated with the lion goddess, something that evokes comparisons to the guardian of Oriande, and are then transported to where they need to be at the right time to stop the Big Bad of the season.

And in the macrocosm of the last three episodes of Season 8, we have the paladins trapped in an unfamiliar location when Honerva’s port closes before they can make it through, cut off from everything and everyone but each other. Then they suddenly arrive where they need to be at the right time to stop the Big Bad of the season. But because of Lotor’s removal from the season, the important parts, the ones involving the Lion Goddess that explain _how_ the Paladins caught up to Honerva in time to stop her from destroying all realities, were cut out, leaving one more plot hole in the final season.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want my thoughts on what the lion goddess looks like, allow me to point you towards [this meta](https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/post/176139559865/voltron-fandom-i-come-before-you-with-a) by radioactivesupersonic (Clockwork Rainbow here on AO3)


End file.
